Find background information and a transcript of this act on the list of 100 Milestone Documents of American history on www.ourdocuments.gov.

The Homestead Act granted citizens or future citizens up to 160 acres of public land provided they live on it, improve it, and pay a small registration fee.

Find further background information and a transcript of the Homestead Act on the list of 100 Milestone Documents of American history on www.ourdocuments.gov.

President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act on May 20, 1862. On January 1, 1863, Daniel Freeman made the first claim under the Act, which gave citizens or future citizens up to 160 acres of public land provided they live on it, improve it, and pay a small registration fee. The Government granted more than 270 million acres of land while the law was in effect.

For teaching suggestions for this document, see the article “Evaluating Perspectives on Westward Expansion: Weighing the Evidence” in the special “Teaching Difficult Topics with Primary Sources” November/December 2011 issue of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) publication Social Education.

This 1884 document records the sworn statements of Almanzo Wilder that he had built a “12 ft. square frame” house in the Dakota Territory and was cultivating the land. Wilder had established the 160-acre homestead five years earlier, through the Homestead Act. It was his first home with his wife, Laura Ingalls Wilder—author of Little House on the Prairie.

This item is a six page letter dated November 28, 1881, from John J. Gasper, Acting Governor of the Arizona Territory, to Crawley P. Dake, U.S. Marshal. The letter contains Gasper’s opinion as to the causes of the frequent disturbances of the public peace by highway robbers, cattle thieves (cowboys), and others in Tombstone as well as his suggestions to remedy the problems.

The causes as described in the letter were the neglect of local self government; the failure of the civil officers of Cochise County and the city of Tombstone to promptly carry out their duties; the dishonest dealings between citizens; the rivalry between the sitting sheriff (Johnny Behan) and the candidate for sheriff (Wyatt Earp); and the local newspapers’ pursuit of causes for their own gain.

Governor Gasper recommended that the Department of Justice employ “a man of well - known courage and character, along with a suitable posse of men, to effect “a severe and speedy punishment” against the lawless men. Gasper also suggested that the Executive of the Territory remove the sitting Sheriff and secure deputies who possessed the confidence of the public and who could work well together to enforce the law and to maintain the public peace.

The killings of the McLowery brothers and (Billy) Clanton by the Earp brothers in the streets of Tombstone are briefly mentioned in the letter.

While the later half of the 19th century saw a series of patents for barbed wire, it was this one that has proven to be the most enduring. In 1874 Joseph Glidden, an Illinois farmer, patented an improved design which held the wire barbs in place. Glidden’s wire was the leading barbed wire used while the West was being settled; since that time, there has been little change to his innovation.

For further background information and teaching suggestions for this document, see the article “Glidden’s Patent Application for Barbed Wire” in the January 1997 National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) publication Social Education

Life in the American West was reshaped by a series of patents for a simple tool that helped ranchers tame the land: barbed wire. Michael Kelly made a significant improvement to wire fencing with an invention that “twisted two wires together to form a cable for barbs-the first of its kind.” Joseph F. Glidden was recognized as the winner in the series of improvements to Kelly’s invention. Gilden’s invention made barbed wire more effective not only because he described a method for locking the barbs in place, but also because he developed the machinery to mass-produce the wire. Today, it remains the most familiar style of barbed wire.

The caption on this photo describes the impact of this plant discovery. “Russian wheat field where USDA plant explorers found wheat varieties from which they later bred the disease resistant wheats that saved the wheat growing industry in the West.”